Thousand Years' War
The Thousand Years' War was a massive and complex series of military conflicts that took place in the continent of Artenk. Despite its name, it actually lasted 1,037 years. It was fought by hundreds of nations in all kinds of battlefields: from hot deserts to tundras, from jungles to mountains, in seas and rivers both on surface and underwater, in the skies and in latter periods even in space. It began in a medieval-like setting with swords and catapults and ended a millennium after with tanks, submarines and space nuclear missiles. In terrestrial terms, it would be equivalent to continent-wide war starting in 969 and ending in 2006. It is estimated that about 100 billion people died in the war, averaging 100 million casualties per year or roughly 274,000 per day. The Thousand Years' War is immensely influential on Artenk's history and culture since almost the entire recorded history of the continent took place during the war. Summary The war was initially a conflict over valuable resources fought between two equally powerful factions: the Northern Alliance (led by the countries Nolbo and Tari) and the Central-Southern Alliance (founded by the nation of Nqi). Both sides grew considerably over the early course of the conflict, eventually incorporating new allies. Factors like hostile terrain, high morale on both sides and almost no technological advantage, among others, all contributed to the war being very slow and inconclusive. Gains and losses were even between the two Alliances and the same territories were repeatedly conquered and lost by rival nations. At the time the war started, it was an ancient and widely held belief in Artenk that something highly valuable and beneficial must be fought for to the very end and achieved by all means necessary. This sacred tenet contributed to both Alliances developing mostly war-focused economies and cultures as a way to win the war and get access to the resources. The armies fought with vim and vigor and, at some point, many young boys were eager to join the war when older; fighting was something desired, not feared or despised. The war's great monotony did not discourage the armies; they were always ready to reconquer the territories lost for the umpteenth time, even if it took them years of planning and strategy. Governments used the war as a propaganda to convince its citizens they needed to pay taxes in order to be safe and guarantee the nation's victory. On the other hand, there were also several long periods of truce in certain fronts and in some cases, rival soldiers would even meet and spend time together before officially "resuming" the war. Even at this slow pace, the war did have some significant progress in its early stage. The first notable event was in the year 22 DW (during the war), when the South conquered the Pun-haba Mountains, which held the very precious Lunka Stones (shiny light-blue gems with many interesting properties). They managed to advance further north, but died among natural disasters in 25 DW. Other significant advances from both sides were made in 32, 37, 42, 43, 55, 58, 60, 69 and 72 DW. The Pun-haba Mountains were finally reconquered in 73 DW. From 89 DW, rebellions started on both factions, which started to gradually disintegrate. For the first time, there were nations fighting for themselves against both factions and also against other self-standing nations would emerge. By around 120 DW, the objectives and alliances in the conflict were not quite the same as in the beginning. Ideological reasons started to play a role on the motivations alongside with resources, and new Alliances emerged. By around 140 DW, several self-fighting nations outsized the two original factions, which were getting weaker. The war at this point was clearly multi-sided. The last territory controlled by the Northern Alliance was conquered in 157 DW, while the Southern Alliance continued to fight the self-standing nations until it too came to an end in 163 DW. In 175 DW, a powerful empire called Nam grew in the north and defeated most warring nations. It began growing southwards and engulfing the remaining nations. The war was seemingly coming to end when a rebellion in 180 DW broke the Nam Empire into sixteen smaller states and caused severe instability. Many nations that were previously conquered by Nam re-emerged and started fighting each other, while others gave up the war in favor of peace. By 194 DW, only a few small nations were fighting, until a religious rebellion caused by declarations of a self-proclaimed prophet caused a severe tension between the southern nations of A'am and Nlio, eventually growing to a full-scale war in which the few remaining fighting nations of the previous conflict took sides, now each fighting for both themselves and their "master nations". This stage of the war continued until 214 DW. Category:Western landmasses (Mek world)